Most U.S. stocks are rising Friday after a report showed that inflation is behaving roughly as economists expected, even if it’s still high.
The S&P 500 added 0.2%, as four out of every five stocks within the index climbed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 211 points, or 0.5%, as of 11:45 a.m. ET, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% lower because of drops for a handful of influential Big Tech stocks. All three indexes are near their all-time highs set at the start of the week.
Stocks got some help from a [personal consumption expenditures] report showing that inflation in the United States accelerated to 2.7% last month, from 2.6% in July, according to the measure of prices that the Federal Reserve likes to use. While that’s above the Fed’s 2% target, and it’s more painful than any household would like, it was precisely what economists had forecast.
That offered some hope that the Fed could continue cutting interest rates in order to give the economy a boost. That’s critical for Wall Street because it’s already sent U.S. stocks on a blistering run to records from a low in April, in large part because of expectations for a string of rate cuts.
Without them, growing criticism that stock prices have become too expensive by rising too quickly would become even more powerful. The S&P 500 is on track for a 0.7% loss for this week, which would be one of its worst since its rally took off in April but only relatively modest compared with history.
The Fed just delivered its first rate cut of the year last week, and officials had penciled in more through the end of next year. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has warned, though, that plans may have to change quickly. That’s because cuts to rates carry the risk of worsening inflation.
One factor threatening to push inflation higher is President Donald Trump’s tariffs, and he announced a set of more tariffs late Thursday. They include taxes on imports of some pharmaceutical drugs, kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities, upholstered furniture, and heavy trucks starting on October 1.
Details were sparse about the coming tariffs, as is often the case with Trump’s pronouncements made on his social media network. That left analysts unsure of their ultimate effects, and the announcement created ripples in the U.S. stock market instead of huge waves.
Paccar, the company based in Bellevue, Washington, that’s behind the Peterbilt and Kenworth truck brands, revved 5% higher, for example.
Big U.S. pharmaceutical companies nudged higher. Eli Lilly rose 0.9%, and Pfizer added 0.2%.
Several companies that sell home furnishings, which could be hurt by higher prices for imports, swung between gains and losses. Williams-Sonoma went from an initial loss of 2.5% to a modest gain and back to a loss of 1.1%, for example. RH dropped 3.8% following a similar back-and-forth.
On the losing end of Wall Street was Costco Wholesale, which fell 1.9% even though it reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Renewal rates for its membership slowed a touch, while an important measure of underlying revenue growth at its stores fell short of analysts’ expectations.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe after slumping in Asia.
France’s CAC 40 climbed 0.9%, while South Korea’s Kospi tumbled 2.5%, for two of the world’s bigger moves.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.9% as Sumitomo Pharma Co.’s shares lost 3.5% and Chugai Pharmaceutical sank 4.8%.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury held steady at 4.18%, where it was late Thursday.
A report said sentiment among U.S. consumers was weaker than economists expected. The survey from the University of Michigan said consumers are frustrated with high prices, but their expectations for inflation over the coming 12 months also ticked down to 4.7%, from 4.8%.
One notable exception was among Americans who own plenty of stocks, who have benefited from Wall Street’s run to records even as the job market slows. Sentiment for them held steady in September, while decreasing for households with smaller or no stock investments.
The next big event for Wall Street could be a looming shutdown of the U.S. government, with a deadline set for next week. But investors have experience with such political impasses, and they’ve had limited impact on the market before.
“The market and broader macroeconomic effects of a shutdown, even lengthy ones, are often mere blips on the charts,” according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management.
—By Stan Choe, AP business writer
AP Writers Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott contributed.
